Here in the South, the closest thing we have to living royalty is Paula Deen and her family. We love our Southern cooking, and Deen embodies it — as do her sons Jamie and Bobby and, to a lesser extent, her brother Bubba Hiers. Paula Deen has cashed in on her knack for perfect Southern cuisine and her ebullient personality and become a genuine celebrity. And we all know that one of the pitfalls of celebrity is that no part of a star’s life is completely private.

Radar Online and the National Enquirer have gone through the videotaped deposition Deen and Hiers have made in the lawsuit against them from a former employee. Both media outlets use exploitative headlines, the Enquirer breathlessly boasting, “WORLD EXCLUSIVE COVER STORY: PAULA DEEN RACIST CONFESSIONS” and beginning their story with “CAUGHT ON VIDEO—PAUL [sic] DEEN’s secret confession – her racist rant EXPOSED in a bombshell ENQUIRER WORLD EXCLUSIVE!”

Radar Online’s story summarizes the deposition in this way:

Celebrity chef Paula Deen has admitted to using the N-word and telling insensitive racial jokes during a May 17 deposition that was videotaped — and also confessed to her brother’s cocaine, pornography and alcohol addictions!

Paula, 66, admitted to using the N-word and wanting black waiters to play the role of slaves at a wedding party she was putting together, a new bombshell report from the National Enquirer claims.

“The personal disclosures uncovered have stunned Paula’s family and could mark the collapse of her entire empire,” a source told the tabloid.

The Emmy-winning kitchen queen was questioned for three hours because of the $1.2 million 2012 lawsuit in which the former General Manager of their Savannah, Georgia, restaurant, Lisa Jackson, claimed use of the N-word by Paula and sexual harassment and infliction of distress and assault by her brother Bubba Hiers.

When asked by Lisa’s Atlanta-based attorney if she’d ever used the N-word, Paula responded, “Yes, of course,” and gave examples of times she used the offensive term.

The Enquirer also makes issue of Hiers’ abuse of cocaine and alcohol, both of which were already public knowledge.

How about the dark side of Political Correctness. A disgusting episode, this frenzy to flay Paula Deen, whose manner was (I cancelled cable two years ago) way too folksy for me; but this treatment of her is unconscionable.

This is a new low. Someone is to be ruined for admitting to having used a racist term at some point in their life????? I grew up in NYC in the sixties and I heard plenty of left-liberals use the N-word on one occasion or another. When people get mad - or are just kidding around - they use 'bad' words. The solution to this is to spend some money researching the use of the N-word by prominent liberals and expose them. Once it becomes clear that people like Sarah Silverman are getting a pass, the persecution of Deen will be seen for what it is: bigotry against white southerners on the part of white northerners.

What's with all the Lefty-coddling around here? Paula Deen is an idiot Democrat who got the tables turned on her by the political correctness she has supported with her votes for years. She worsened it for all of us by campaigning for Obama and cozying up to Michelle. What goes around comes around.

The principle is bigger than Paula Deen. Nor does she strike me as a 'lefty' Traditionally southerners vote Democratic and my reactionary relatives all loved Jimmy Carter while disliking Martin Luther King. This syndrome where people lose their careers if they offend a bunch of nameless thought cops has got to go.

From what I’ve seen of how she comports herself during interviews with nasty people hell-bent on skewering her, I think Paula Deen is a class act. As someone from humble origins who was dealt a tough hand when her husband died in the early days of her marriage, leaving her to raise two sons on zip education and no marketable skills, she gets my vote on grit alone. I’ve also always thought the sparkle in her eyes was very telling.

But the deal was sealed for me when she demonstrated how to carve a turkey breast to a young WSJ reporter using her own anatomy a few Thanksgivings back. A true character with backbone and a delightful sense of humor.

The "N - word" was in general usage in the South up until about 1960. Most of us didn't know there was an alternative. "Black" and "African-American" hadn't yet been anointed by Jesse Jackson or somebody. About the only alternative was "Colored" like on the water fountains. If anybody who was an adult in the South by 1960 tells you they never used the "N - word" during that era, consider their credibility lost.

And it seems, the more ridiculous and extreme PC becomes, the less chance will ever be forgiven by these latter day moralists. One genuinely begins to feel they would fight the Civil War all over again just to punish us for failing their retroactive morals test.

Perhaps the next time someone finds themselves in Deen's situation, being attacked for something unfortunate said long ago, they should just turn the tables and attack the attackers for being ridiculously PC. They should point out the ineffectiveness of banning racist or homophobic speech. Burying the words doesn't bury the underlying reason the words are said, and there's probably a more efficient and less juvenile way to root out prejudice if only the thought police would stop policing language long enough to search for it.

First off, I don't watch Paula Deen. When I watch the Food Network, the chefs I like are Alton Brown ('cause I'm a geek and I love tools) and Barefoot Contessa ('cause her food just tastes so good!) with occasionally a look at something exotic like Spice Goddess. If I did want down-home Southern cooking, the Neelys do a better job, IMHO, than Paula - their food tastes better to me. All that being said - this is just ridiculous! Racism is bad. But I don't think Paula is racist. Our society has allowed PC to run amok. I really don't care if Paula used the n-word about a guy who robbed her at gun-point 30 years ago. I think celebrated rap artists talking about Ni**as and 'hos do a lot more damage to blacks, myself.